Facing the Boss

“There’s not much we can plan for,” John answered. “The most we can do is stick together and keep an eye out for ambushes.”

“Probably should limit our long-range attacks,” Aeolia supplied. “Really don’t want to bring the roof down while we’re in there.”

“That might be a viable option though,” Vivian added. “A few concussive arrays in the right spots could let us do it safely and only drop debris on an enemy.”

“If we get the chance for it, it sounds like it could save us time and effort,” John said. “But let’s not bank on it. Hell, the fact these robots have an illusion over the building might mean they’ve done some major renovations and the interior might be completely stable.”

“That’s true,” Vivian muttered, scratching her temple idly. “Not much we can actually plan for in this case, is there?”

John shook his head. “Yeah. I don’t think trying to scout inside will work given they sent the sentries after us for just getting close. Hell, we might have to fight our way in.”

“We’re never going to know if we just sit here,” Aeolia huffed out impatiently. “Are we going to move out?”

“There’s one last thing I want to do,” John said, summoning Senka. “I’ve gotten a good amount of experience and I want to see if there’s anything I can do with Senka.”

“Huh, that’s new,” John said as he took in the new Observe sheet. “Guess it makes sense to need a new look. There’d be too much info to fit on the old one.”

“Since when do your items have levels,” Aeolia asked, flying back to his shoulder to read the display.

“Since I used Craftsmanship on Senka to see what improvements I could do,” John replied. “And there was an option to unlock new perks by binding it to me. Five percent of any experience I gain goes to Senka instead of me and I get a ‘Resource Point’ to spend every level. Got a free one from Gaia and used it to get that first one, ‘Arcane Focus’, which makes Shadow Snare cheaper and gives it greater range. And I think since I picked that perk, I should get options that either improve the magic aspect or give me more magic options.”

John cast Craftsmanship on Senka and selected the ‘Improve’ option.

“Well, that sucks,” John bemoaned when he saw he only had one perk he could afford. “Was kind of hoping all the perks would have cost one or two points.”

“The perk you can redeem isn’t bad,” Vivian consoled. “More mana isn’t something bad.”

“No, it’s not,” John agreed. “Gives me more of a back up to work with, though the simultaneous and equal increase means it’ll still take the same time to regen from empty. The question is should I spend the points for it, or save up for Telekinesis?”

“It doesn’t give any immediate benefit,” Aeolia pointed out. “I think holding on would be better. Maybe build up a good reserve of points and splurge.”

John weighed the choice, eyes drifting towards his mana bar, which sat around a quarter full.

“We’re going into the final stretch here, and even if I can’t reap the full benefit of it, more mana is better,” John announced, finger hovering over the middle option. “Telekinesis, while it's cool, isn’t something really worth waiting for when I can get a useful boost now.”

John tapped the option, reducing Senka’s points to zero. As he willed the screens closed, he caught something out of the corner of his eye, a dark shape moving near an open doorway. He turned in haste towards it, lifting Senka in defence, only to find the space empty.

Aeolia and Vivian likewise followed John’s action, though they quickly turned matching curious looks towards John.

“I thought I saw something,” he said, his breathing heavy. “A shadow moving by the doorway. Guess I’m just being a little jumpy.”

“We should probably finish this barrier,” Aeolia recommended. “Think we’ve spent enough time here.”

“Yeah,” John replied, a little embarrassed over his overly jumpy move and his nerves still on edge. “Let’s finish these bots.”

They remained unaccosted while they marched towards the illusioned building, the quiet and still street not easing any of their nerves.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” John broke the silence. “Hearing the sounds of an attacker closing in or this complete lack of sound.”

“Definitely the quiet,” Aeolia answered, her voice tense in his ear. “At least with an enemy close by, you know it's there.”

Vivian looked slightly hesitant to provide her opinion but schooled her features and let her thoughts out, “I think both are quite unnerving, but I don’t really have experience with being attacked by enemies.”

“Well, we’re about to make a whole lot of noise so you’ll get a good taste of that,” Aeolia said as they reached the decrepit phantom facade of the enemy’s HQ. Without his goggles, John couldn’t see past the fake exterior, but he could still remember the silver gleam of zilhavrum spreading across the brick in patches.

He took a deep breath, summoning Senka. While the small blade wasn’t the damage dealer the Greatwood Sword was, it was easier to wield while in a group and Shadow Snare could give Aeolia the opening needed to fell a foe.

“Ready?” he asked his companions as he stared at the disguised entrance.

Vivian swallowed nervously and gave a small nod, hiding her body behind the shield. Aeolia jumped down from John’s shoulder and shifted to her full size, wind already swirling around her glaive. John took one more breath and led their way in.

A tingling sensation like weak static electricity prickled their skin as they crossed the illusory barrier, catching the briefest glance of the building’s true exterior before passing through a large opening.

“A little weird they left this hole in the wall,” John whispered as his eyes swept through the expansive chamber they had entered. Every wall besides the exterior ones had been knocked down, making room for three industrial-looking cylinders, arranged in a triangular fashion. Thick cables ran in and out of them, snaking over the floor and up the walls.

“Maybe it’s just for our convenience,” Vivian offered, her voice quiet. “Or maybe the wall had already collapsed and they just haven’t felt the need to fix it.”

“Intruders,” a dispassionate, synthesized voice sounded from above them, drawing their attention to where the cables converged through a hole in the ceiling, “you will be eliminated.”

A spider-like machine dropped from the hole, landing with a dull thud. John was quick to cast Observe on it.

Before John could comment on what the Encounter Event mentioned, one of the cylinders opened with a hiss and three-legged machines began to crawl out, similar in appearance to the Salvage Drones with a single arm extending from the top of their elongated, football-shaped bodies, ending in a torch-like device.

Worker Drone: A simple construct designed to assist the Salvage Operation Manager in the construction and maintenance of drones and machinery.

“Well, great,” John groused. “So that’s what it meant. Weird that these things only give a basic reading with Observe. No level or loot.”

“Then they must not be a big threat,” Aeolia surmised, quickly releasing a slash of wind at one of the drones. The green crescent easily tore through the machine, the impact causing its remains to fly into a wall. “Seems pretty easy to deal with.”

A second hiss drew their attention as one of the other cylinders opened, letting more drones spill out.

“You had to say something,” Vivian muttered. “They might not be much to deal with individually, but if we get swarmed…”

“Fucking Zerg tactics,” John cursed, swapping Senka out for the greatsword. “Do we try for the bonus or just take out the big metal bug?”

Aeolia let loose a gale to knock back an encroaching bunch of drones. “I think we should try to do both. Look at where they came from.”

John and Vivian turned their attention to one of the opened cylinders and saw mechanical arms within assembling more drones.

“If we don’t break those, we’re going to be dealing with enemies all around,” Aeolia said, blasting away another group of bots. Her efforts were keeping them unmolested, but the drones kept coming, drawing ever closer.

John's eyes bounced between the two open construction vats, gauging the distance between them, then to the third, unopened one near the watching boss.

“I think I could use Blaze Shard to blow them up,” John theorized, “but I don’t have enough mana to hit all of them. Unless I use some of the dark mana I’ve got saved up. There’s twenty-nine mana in the Retaining Crystal, and Senka has thirteen, which gives me about twenty-eight fire mana to use. Gives me two uses of the enhanced attack if I don’t use any of my mana. The problem will be setting it up.”

“I think I can blow all these guys away,” Aeolia said with a frown, “but I’ll be pretty drained after. And I don’t think the boss is just going to let us set up the big boom without going on the offensive.”

Vivian touched her choker and withdrew a bottle of shine dust. “I think I can set a trap to keep it from attacking, but I’ll need some time to set it up.”

John and Aeolia shared a glance and nodded, both adjusting their grip on their respective weapons.

“We’ll keep them off ya,” Aeolia said before slamming the flat of her glaive into an approaching bot, knocking it into two of its fellows, rendering all three inert.

John likewise started to bat away the swarm. He and Aeolia began to circle around Vivian while she wrote out an array, keeping the mechanical tide from disturbing her. Despite the number of drones they sent flying, their number never seemed to diminish as new drones poured from the two opened pods.

‘They just keep coming, don’t they?’ John bemoaned as he sent several drones flying with a horizontal swing. ‘I’m not even getting any experience from fighting these things.’

Skill Level Up: Large Blade Proficiency Lv. 2. Damage increased 5% -> 6%.

‘Well, that’s nice,’ he thought somewhat sarcastically. ‘Not going to say no to the level up there. Kind of weird I got one so soon after getting the skill, but I have used the greatsword a lot in here, more than Senka. I probably should check the progression bar on my skills after this.’

“Done,” Vivian announced and John glanced back at the intricate array that hovered in front of her. At the same time, he caught sight of the boss lifting it’s left arm. A second later, the third pod hissed open, releasing its stored payload of drones.

“Shit,” Aeolia cursed as the tide grew thicker. “We ready to do the thing?”

“I’m ready,” Vivian reported and John nodded.

“Then hit the deck!”

John and Vivian followed Aeolia’s order and dropped to the floor as she whipped her glaive around in a full circle, a harsh gale of green wind exploding outward. The conjured wind crashed into the assembled drones and knocked the whole swarm away, filling the chamber with harsh metallic echoes.

The din of the crashing drones hadn’t faded before the boss began to advance on them. The sharp tap of its spider-like legs was joined by the sizzling noise of electricity that formed on the tips of the lances that extended from its back, the charged weapons batting away Worker Drones that threatened to hit it as it moved from its position near the furthest pod.

Vivian pushed herself up, and with a flinging gesture, willed her array towards the advancing construct. The boss adjusted course to avoid the projectile, causing Vivian to adopt a look of concentration as she maneuvered the array. This time, the machine didn’t attempt to avoid the circle of arcane script and stepped into it. The silver powder, a shade darker than the nearly reflective zilhavrum exterior of the Operations Manager, flashed with brilliance, freezing the machine in place as it passed close to one of the pods.

“It won’t hold for long,” Vivian breathed. John noticed how low her mana was, the blue bar less than a fifth full. True to her words, the construct seemed to strain against her paralysis spell, its metallic limbs twitching as it fought the effect.

John surged towards the pods, swapping the greatsword for Senka and pulling the Fire Crystal out of his Inventory. The use of mana had to be precise; a wrong combination could bring about an effect that altered the whole plan or leave him unable to get the proper mana mix to fuel the final explosive Evocation.

Nine of his mana and seven from Senka launched the first Blaze Shard into one of the pods; the solidified fiery mana punched into its metal inside, missing the mechanical arms that worked to replace the drones lost to Aeolia’s sweeping attack. The second shard used ten of his own and the remaining six dark mana from Senka and lodged itself into one of the pod’s arms, slowing its movement.

John stowed Senka and pulled out the Mana Retaining Crystal as he moved into position to hit the last pod, the pebble-sized reserve of dark mana cupped in his right palm. Four of its mana joined the last twelve of his own to fire the last shard into the final pod, striking the ceiling of the cylinder.

‘Now comes the fun part,’ John thought as he began to run mana from the Retaining Crystal into the Fire Crystal. The twenty dark mana he fed into the conversion filled him with a cool sensation that quickly burned away as the thirteen fire mana rushed into him. He moved with deliberate steps, guessing the distances between the pods. One misstep and he would fail to destroy them all in one fell swoop. The frozen boss continued to struggle against Vivian’s binding, slowly forcing its way free.

“Get ready for the boom!” John shouted as he reached the space between the three pods. He caught sight of Aeolia and Vivian diving away then fed the fiery mana into the crystal, triggering its Evocation one more time. The three Blaze Shards detonated with a deafening roar, causing the pods to buckle under the outward ****.

20 DMG

John twisted his head to see a wave of flame finish washing over the boss, a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of its side. It’s head pivoted around, the lens that served as its eye glaring at him. Its body then spun around, freed from Vivian’s binding.